Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

New Business Bulletin: Patreon, Starcom, Magnite and more

Patreon, a membership platform that makes it easy for artists and creators to get paid and connect with their fans in a meaningful way, today announces a partnership with shesaid.so, a global community of women and gender minorities in the music business and champion a more equitable music industry for all. The partnership will include co-presenting the Alternative Power 100 Music List 2021 (#AltList) which aims to challenge conventional music industry standards and celebrate people of all genders whose impact doesn’t fall under the traditional definition of power.

Novatiq has announced a significant commercial partnership with Japanese data-driven digital advertising company Supership Holdings. The deal will see the UK start-up and the Japanese digital media powerhouse create a multimillion-pound, multicounty, multiyear deal to develop a fully privacy-compliant advertising platform. The patented technology developed by Novatiq uses network customer intelligence for user verification to overcome the current challenges faced by the advertising industry as a result of the phasing out of third-party cookies and other current identification signals.

Gifting experience company, Smartbox UK, which owns Red Letter Days and Buyagift, has appointed performance marketing agency, Journey Further, to handle its SEO activity. Journey Further’s remit will centre around driving organic growth and building brand awareness for the Smartbox UK brands. The agency, which has offices in Leeds, London and Manchester, will manage the brands’ technical SEO and on-page content, as well as managing a digital PR project for the brand, which includes securing high-quality coverage using its relevancy-led approach.

Starcom has announced it has been appointed to handle TV media buying for online marketplace, Vinted, since April, in the UK. Following a competitive process, Starcom has been selected to help Vinted drive app downloads, increase product listings and ultimately grow its 18 to 34-year UK community, through its TV advertising buys. VCCP was the incumbent agency.

The Open University (OU) has jointly published a report with Be the Business titled Skills for Success: supporting business leaders with digital adoption. The research involved surveying 1,500 business leaders of SMEs from across the UK and listening to the experiences of businesses which have needed to make drastic changes to adapt to the challenges presented by the pandemic. Covid-19 accelerated the adoption of collaboration and e-commerce software, for example, in more than half (54%) of UK SMEs. Of the business leaders who adopted new technology or accelerated its use due to Covid-19, at least 85 per cent plan to continue using it at the same level once restrictions are fully lifted.

The 2021 BRIT Awards with Mastercard, the first major music event held in an indoor arena, in front of a live audience of key workers, in the UK for more than a year, ensured its return was enjoyed by music fans all over the world by partnering with cloud video platform Grabyo. After a three month delay, 4,000 fans were welcomed on-site to watch the 2021 BRIT Awards. With a further 2.9 million people watching online, the production team used Grabyo to build a comprehensive content strategy for the awards. By delivering a diverse mix of live social video, real-time clips and highlights from the live show, The BRITs were able to reach 53.8M fans to engage with the awards, enjoying 81% growth in its social reach from the previous ceremony in 2020. Throughout the evening, The BRITs content team, powered by social media agency Somethin’ Else, delivered clips and highlights from the stage, the red carpet, interviews and behind the scenes action directly to its social media channels using Grabyo’s Studio platform.

Magnite has announced Rakuten Advertising will leverage the Magnite CTV platform across Europe to broaden advertiser and agency access to inventory on Rakuten TV AVOD service. Magnite’s CTV platform further expands Rakuten Advertising’s access to technology built to properly handle the nuances of long-form video, resulting in high quality advertising and viewing experiences. Rakuten TV sits within Rakuten Advertising’s unified portfolio, where advertisers can buy media across a variety of channels.

Kantar has announced the acquisition of MeMo2, the Amsterdam-based cross-media  effectiveness tracking specialist. With a reputation for highly advanced and innovative cross-media research and analytics solutions, the MeMo2 team and portfolio is highly complementary to Kantar’s campaign effectiveness measurement offer. The acquisition brings approx. 50 specialists into the Kantar team, creating a platform to significantly expand the media effectiveness measurement business in Europe, as well as strengthening Kantar’s Dutch business with MeMo2’s client roster.

 Zebra Technologies Corporation has announced the new ZSB Series printer, the company’s first wireless label printing solution designed for the small office home office (SOHO) market. Featuring easy to load, eco-friendly label cartridges along with a modern label designer and mobile app software experience, the ZSB Series enables entrepreneurs and small business owners to effortlessly design, create and print labels, allowing them to focus on the details of their business.

Innovative AI cough tracking app Hyfe, has announced a new partnership with global virtual research organisation ObvioHealth to provide a measurement of coughing frequency, severities, and types in virtual clinical trials. It is hoped this partnership will better assist clinical researchers in identifying different strains of coughs and adjoining illnesses, including long COVID in a post-pandemic world.